Thursday, September 6, 2012

My work fell apart and "date" anniversary

Here is the story of how my workplace fell apart on Friday. Let's do a day-by-day, shall we?Monday: My store starts getting ready for the hurricane. I know I am scheduled for a 3:30 am install of a major new system on Tuesday. I spent all day calling to confirm that this install would indeed still take place, despite the fact that we planned to close Tuesday at noon as stormy weather would be there by the afternoon. The technicians were adamant. They would be there Tuesday at 3:30 am. So I went home and went to bed early.Tuesday: I got up at 3:00 am and checked my phone - charging downstairs. Lo and behold, a missed call from 10:30 the night before (when I was sound asleep) - the technician canceling the install! I WAS PISSED. When I dragged my exhausted self in to work later that morning, the system installation team had already left several frantic messages. They are in Illinois, and were panicked about the cancellation. The deadline for install was September 1st, and they wanted to know what went wrong. I explained that their technician cancelled and they were kind of rude about it. They were not understanding that I couldn't promise that the install would be done by deadline. For one thing, I knew nothing about the storm's effects yet; for another, I can't come in at 3:30 am for an install and stay until 6 pm. That's not even safe. I could only do it if someone came in to relieve me or if I was closing early. Oh, and yeah - I didn't cancel the stupid thing; their contractor did!Wednesday: We were closed through the storm. The install team had the audacity to email my boss and demand an install on Wednesday. Helloooo, we are in the middle of a storm.Thursday: I requested an install on Thursday, because while the hospital was still on lock-down, I was able to open the store. But there were no technicians to do it. Late Thursday afternoon I was told that Friday was the absolute last day, so they were driving a team in overnight from Arkansas. I agreed to meet them at 8:00 am - an hour early - for the install.Friday: The team showed up and ripped out my registers and servers and generally made a gigantic mess while I rushed to help the many customers on a very busy day. I was swamped, but all my systems kept going down throughout the day! Finally the installers left, but - right after they left everything started to break. That includes:
1. One register's cash drawer would not close.
2. One front terminal did not work.
3. The ordering system was unavailable, so I could not order any drugs.
4. The phones completely died, could not dial out or in.
5. The back office printer began printing garbage and continued to do so for 2 hours until I just let it jam.
6. The end of day reports would not run.
7. The scanners we use to scan drugs to determine that they are the correct item lost connection.
In frustration I tried to call in all the problems to the service desk, but I was also extremely busy and by myself - my only technician was helping her family after the storm. I was dying! When I was finally ready to leave - an hour late - all of the sudden very loud country music started blaring out of the phone speaker in the office! That was the last straw! I threw that stupid phone on the floor and left!

The next week I did finally get the place fixed but boy, was it a mess. The installers had missed several key server migration steps, hence the collapse of all systems. Insane. Now I'm just left trying to figure everything out with the new system: I never had any training on the darn thing!

I drowned my sorrows in sushi. A new sushi place opened just blocks from us and David and I went there to celebrate the 8th anniversary of the day we met! David - cutie that he is - always remembers this date and I always forget and then pretend that I didn't. I'm terrible with dates.

That first day we got to know each other over sushi, so a sushi date made sense. Turns out that this place has a very affordable happy hour from 5 to 7. We had complimentary miso soup and cucumber-crab salad, followed by crab shumai and four different rolls - then a complimentary fruit salad! - all for under $21.00. I kid you not. Less than $30 including tip! We will certainly be visiting Kakkoii again!

Oh. My. God. That is awful. I can't believe they messed up the installation that bad. What a mess. I am glad it's behind you and you were able to celebrate your date-anniversary that night. You sure have a sweet/thoughtful husband! And that is CRAZY cheap sushi! I am envious!!

I thought of you today when I went to get my prescriptions filled for this awful bronchitis I have. I could tell they were swamped and when the technician apologetically told me it'd be a 30 minute wait I was extra nice. :) I thought of you and the stressful work conditions you have described in your pharmacy and figured the guy would appreciate a calm smile instead of the usual snark her probably gets!

About Me

My name is Grace and my life is needlessly complicated. Things happen to me that just don't happen to other shiny happy people. At least there's never a dull moment in my life!
I live in New Orleans in an old house that creates dirt with my darling husband and a few dead plants. I'm a pharmacist, he's a lawyer. Somehow we're still broke (but Sallie Mae is rich. Hmmm.). I have way too much going on in my life, including: church and Bible study, clothing design/sewing, art of various types, teaching (test prep), jewelry making, running (check out my races page for more info), the occasional intellectual endeavor (research, writing), and cooking. Oh and I work, too, of course. I'm a retail pharmacist heading up the HIV division in our region.
It might seem like this blog is just my complaints...or my races. But it's not. Someday I WILL post something useful, I promise! I hope to share the more interesting aspects of my life and a few tips, tricks, and hints that have saved me a $ or a minute. Perhaps you'll find something you like. I certainly hope so!